Skip to main content

Hostel Review | YHA London Central

Overall Rating ***** 4/5

During my 2 day stay in London, I stayed at the YHA London Central Hostel. If you are looking for a quiet, spacious, no fuss and centrally located hostel then this may be a good option, however if you are looking for a hostel that provides a unique experience, then this may not be a good fit.

Pro: The hostel was  clean, well equipped and centrally situated.
Con: The atmosphere wasn't as warm, friendly or cozy as other hostels I've been to. 

Location ***** 4/5

As it's name suggests, YHA London Central is located in a nice central part of London  and is about 10 minutes walk from the Oxford Circus metro station. 

I felt comfortable walking the streets in the morning, during the day and in the evening, and did not feel unsafe during these times.

Check-in Process ***** 4/5

The check-in process was efficient and the staff were professional. On check-in I got:
  • Key card for access to the hostel entrance, your room and other facilities
  • A free map of London
  • WI-FI password

The room ***** 5/5

  • Overall feel: the 6 bed dorm was clean, spacious and tidy but felt a little dated.
  • En-suite toilet and bathroom: Yes (additional toilet and bathroom available in the hall)
  • Bed: no issues with the bed, and I slept pretty well.
  • Convenient power source for electronics: Yes (personal power and reading light for each bed)
  • Security: large locker for each bed (can fit a carry on backpack, but bring your own lock)


Facilities and Services ***** 4/5


  • Laundry: Coin operated washer and dryer (Laundry facilities are available here at a reasonable cost. It was however broken on the days of my visit)
  • Kitchen: free use of the well equipped kitchen. (The kitchen however wasn't very clean on the days of my visit.)
  • Reception: 24 hours
  • Wi-Fi: Only available in the communal area. Speed seemed to be okay.
  • Security: The hostel felt safe and secure. (I didn't feel unsafe nor did I feel there were any risk to my personal belongings due to the availability of a personal locker for my bag). 
  • Cleanliness: Apart from the kitchen, the hostel facilities and rooms were quite clean.
  • Breakfast included: No
  • Cafe/Restaurant: Yes (though I didn't try any of their food or drinks)


Atmosphere ***** 3/5

Hostel Type: Cheap and efficient

The hostel both in terms of the building design and the social interaction had a quiet and industrial feel to it. Unlike other hostels it didn't seem to emit a warm cozy feel that provides a unique and memorable experience. 
Labels:
Location: London, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An intro to conditional validation and formatting in PowerApps (using SharePoint as a data source)

The Problem What if we need to create a form that changes it's behaviour based on the answer entered by the user.

For example, we need to build a leave request form that: Shows the comment field if applying for a sick leave, but hides the comment field if applying for a annual leaveRequires the requestor to write a comment if their sick leave is more than 1 day, but is optional if sick for just 1 day.  The default form interface for custom lists in SharePoint Online can be used for basic scenarios, but doesn't provide an easy way to add business logic described above (unless you want to write some javascript)

In the past InfoPath would have been the tool of choice for many, however this tool is now in maintenance mode and whilst it will still be supported for a wee while there will be no improvements or enhancements to the platform.

The Solution This is where PowerApps come in. PowerApps is now the platform that is recommended by Microsoft as a way for business users to create…
Read more

Uploading a file from a SharePoint document library into an Azure Blob Storage with Microsoft Flow (or Logic App)

The Problem One of the things that I've been experimenting with lately is Microsoft Flow. The service allows you to build process automation to facilitate transfer of information from one system to another easily.

One scenario I wanted to try out is to be able to copy/move a file from SharePoint to an Azure Blob Storage. There are a number of reasons that you may want to do this:

Archive files that are no longer neededUpload a copy of a file (usually an image) into a Blob Storage so that images can be hosted in a CDN to optimize page load performance In the past doing something like this would have required some form of custom development e.g. a remote event receiver. However the introduction of Microsoft Flow and Logic Apps has created another alternative that is worth exploring....

Update 30/09/16: If you are looking to put your assets into a CDN to make it load faster, then it's worth checking out the new Preview Release Office 365 Public Content Delivery Network (CDN) capab…
Read more

Nintex Workflow | parsing JSON responses from json-only web requests

Update 03/08/16:
Logic Apps has gone GA, and has undergone a major v2 change since this post was written. For the most part, the core actions remain the same but just renamed or work a little differently e.g. http listener (now known as "When an http request is received" + "Received") and conditions (now triggered via the add a condition" button instead of being configured inside the http action.)

It is worth noting that the BizTalk JSON Encoder API app can no longer be found in the marketplace. This is now a native function in Logic Apps. Though, I'll try to refresh this post with the how to do it in the version of Logic Apps that GA'd, I'm not sure when I will have to do it, so if you can't wait, I suggest looking at the xml function can be found here.

Update 07/08/16:
Steps for new Logic App UI that has GA have been added into the solution section below.
The problem
One of the things I have been working on lately in the Nintex Workflow world,…
Read more